perfluorinated plastic optical fiber tapers for evanescent wave sensing全氟塑料光纤对隐失波传感蜡烛.pdf

Sensors 2009, 9, 10423-10433; doi:10.3390/ OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Perfluorinated Plastic Optical Fiber Tapers for Evanescent Wave Sensing Roberto Gravina, Genni Testa and Romeo Bernini * Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment (IREA), National Research Council (CNR), Via Diocleziano 328, 80124 Napoli, Italy; E-Mails: gravina.r@r.it (R.G.); testa.g@r.it (G.T.) * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: bernini.r@r.it; Tel.: +39-081-570799; Fax: +39-081-5705734. Received: 26 October 2009; in revised form: 27 November 2009 / Accepted: 11 December 2009 / Published: 22 December 2009 Abstract: In this work we describe the fabrication and the characterization of perfluorinated plastic-cladded optical fiber tapers. The heat-and-pull procedure has been used to fabricate symmetric tapers. Devices with different taper ratio have been produced and the repeatability of the process has been verified. The very low refractive indexes of the core-cladding perfluorinated polymers (n = 1.35–1.34) permit a strong enhancement of the evanescent wave power fraction in aqueous environments (n = 1.33), making them very attractive for evanescent wave sensing. The tapers have been characterized carrying out evanescent field absorbance measurements with different concentrations of methylene blue in water and fluorescence collection measurements in an aqueous solution containing Cy